The present invention generally relates to luminaires and more particularly to luminaires that are suspended or mounted in an architectural space and that become an architectural element within the space.
Suspended and mounted luminaires used for architectural lighting have two basic functions: to effectively light the space and to provide physical forms within the space that are aesthetically pleasing. A wide variety of luminaires and luminaire types are available to a lighting designer to achieve specific lighting and architectural goals. These include luminaires that provide direct lighting or indirect lighting, or that provide both direct and indirect lighting from the same luminaire. The luminaires typically include light sources and optics supported in a housing that dominates the luminaire's physical form and that contributes to its aesthetic appeal. The housing is typically opaque with its visual appearance being characterized by the shape of the housing and how light within the space washes the housing exterior surfaces. In many lighting environments the exterior housing surfaces will be dark or exhibit shadows, and generally there is little the lighting designer can do to change its appearance other than change the light distribution within the space.
The present invention provides a luminaire wherein the exterior surface of the luminaire housing will exhibit a uniform glow characteristic independent of external lighting conditions in the space in which the luminaire is used. This characteristic is achieved by uniquely cycling a small fraction of the light emitted by the luminaire's light source or sources into a wall or walls of the luminaire housing and by extracting this captured light through the exterior surface or surfaces of the walls. The invention provides a lighting designer with an added tool for creating aesthetically pleasing lighting systems within an architectural space. This facility is achieved in a luminaire with relatively simple optical systems that are easy to clean and maintain.